Choosing Of Interim Manager Looms

Differences Arise As Directors Begin Discussions On The Process

MANCHESTER — Board of directors members agree that they need to hire an interim manager who can start work when General Manager Steven Werbner leaves Oct. 1.

But they don't necessarily agree on how to go about finding one.

Directors have begun talking about possible candidates for the interim position. But some Republicans have questioned the involvement of Democratic Town Chairman Ted Cummings, who produced a list of more than a dozen potential candidates.

Werbner will become Tolland's town manager after 28 years in Manchester. The interim position will last for six months or more, Democrat Josh Howroyd, deputy mayor, said Friday. Howroyd said he would like the interim manager to be familiar with local issues.

There's not enough time to hire a permanent manager before October, Howroyd said, and a local election season is not the time to make such a decision.

``With the election coming up, you don't want to rush the selection of a general manager because you don't want to politicize that,'' he said. ``It's going to be the first of the year before we can get anybody anyway.''

Almost all of the dozen or so names Cummings proposed in a telephone interview Friday have strong local ties. The list includes people from both parties.

Some have been in public office, and some have held positions in state government. Others work for the town.

Cummings said that when he called Howroyd and suggested the names, ``I shared with him this: This is an issue that must be front and center. It can't be allowed to drift.''

Republican Director Louis Spadaccini, the minority leader, agreed the town needs to have somebody in Werbner's office by Oct. 1. But he disagreed that party chairmen should be involved. Republican Town Chairman Carl Zinsser got a call from Cummings asking for input, and he declined to participate, Spadaccini said.

``When you start having the Democratic town chairman making lists of interim town managers, it introduces politics into the position,'' Spadaccini said. ``The whole purpose of having a town manager is to take the politics out of the position.''

What the Republicans think doesn't matter to Cummings.

Most might agree consensus is important in choosing both a temporary manager and a permanent one.

``You have to keep in mind: Manchester, in 55 years, has had only five managers,'' Howroyd said. ``So we want to do it right.''